One therapist, four cultures: Working with families in Greater China

Abstract

Rather than addressing ethnicity through a pre-set cultural lens, I discuss how my experiences as a family therapy trainer in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai taught me to understand culture through the lens of the family. Similarities and differences among these cultural domains were reviewed. I also demonstrate how each encounter shaped my emotional responses and ways of intervention in the course of family interviews. Even though I belong to the same ethnic background, I had to interact differently in different arenas, despite my cultural values and theoretical orientation.